Ed,

RE You're questions - I’ll try to respond using your numbering:

 1 - My one memorial encounter with electronics as a youngster  around 15 years old was when our Midwest Radio – a console about 3 ft high and two ft wide that had maybe 20 tubes and a series of IF coils – but wasn’t receiving signals too well. 

It had been a gift from a neighbor who actually had a job and could purchase something like that – he had purchased a new one because of the poor performance and he gave his old one to us and it was a thing to admire.

I decided maybe I could ‘fix’ it so I took the back off and looked inside - Of course I didn’t know they were IF coils  but each had a couple of screws on top and I discovered that every one of them was not tightened down!  So I tightened them and the Radio was forever silent.    I can’t really call my dad’s reaction as a lecture – it was a tight-lipped masterpiece of self-control.

  

2- I worked on about 17 different Radars during  WW II – I do not recall the part numbers – I think the earliest one was an SCR 276 a low frequency Radar using a large ‘screen’ type antenna system with multiple phased dipoles spread across the surface and an Amplidyne [?] rotator system.

The Radars ranged from 200 mHz to 3000 MHz systems using parabola antennas   In those days the Magnetron was a top secret tube and are now common in every household’s microwave oven.

3- My interest in Television began and ended with the Tarzian years.

My early interest was in auto mechanics – I went to Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis where I took three years of auto mechanics and  I didn’t really become interested in electronics until one visit to the library looking for information on automobiles I ran across a book by Ghiaradi [?] it as filled with schematics and math explaining how each circuit functioned and I found it fascinating – took the book out and renewed it several times.

Electronics became by primary interest.

4- I loved Los Angeles –

Fairly fresh out of the service finding work was not a big problem.   My first try was at a small outfit on Pico Blvd called Bel Canto Radio– they were advertising for a technician – it was run by a German Jew who had escaped  Hitler’s Germany before the war … he had designed a TRF AM receiver that he customized building them  into walls and furniture for mainly the “Hollywood” community.

(these were clients with lots of money and weird tastes – I once built a radio hi-fi system in the base of an antique $3000  toilet stool – when you opened the lid the radio came on)

The work entailed both the repair of and installation of his own and other commercial radio equipment – not much FM in those days [but that’s a story in its own right].

 While Superheterodyne  receivers were the radio of preference for most the TRF [tuned radio frequency] radio had slightly better quality for AM signals because the bandwidth..and  selectivity didn’t seem a problem because the radio spectrum was not saturated with hundreds stations on air.

He had a partner who owned a record store on Wilshire Blvd.   Turns out his clients were mainly the large Jewish community of the Hollywood movie industry…writers, composers, etc., and some big time actors of the day too.

I was able to meet several during the course of working at Bel Canto in their homes where I went to ‘fix’ something – that almost always meant replacing a tube.   I have autographed ‘clarinet reeds’ from Benny Goodman,  e.g.,  he had one of the first BrushTape Recorders which was the reason for my meeting him.

Anyway I didn’t stay in LA only because when I looked into going to UCLA they would not honor some credit hours from Butler University I had accumulated and even though it was only 3 or 4 – I really do not recall how many  - I felt strongly they should have accepted them – so I decided to return to IU in Bloomington.

5- Construction of WTTV was a memorial time – all night working sessions – construction of all the studio equipment from video and pulse distribution  amplifiers, sync Generators, video switching systems, monitors, consoles, slide projectors, audio systems, cameras, flying spot slide unit, transmitter, diplexer and even the bat wing antenna for Channel 10!    The design of the microwave path for interconnection to the network out of Cincinnati requiring two intermediate sites from an Off-air point about 30 miles form Cincinnati – Brown County State Park is right in the path and has high elevations.

The exposure to such a wide range of electronic and mechanical design issues could never have been duplicated in any other venue.

That group at Sarkes Tarzian was fearless in taking on such a mind boggling task.   The primary engineer, Mort Weigel, {no degree} was a beer drinking, joke telling, phenomena of talent – from metal working, chemical treatment, electrical – mechanical, and electronic design,  nothing was outside his abilities to undertake.

I probably learned more in those times of construction of WTTV – spanning a range of mechanical and electronic design - than I would have in a lifetime under other circumstances.

6-  I know of no equipment items that from those years – but some may exist – if they do they are likely in the possession of Thomas Tarzian.

 

 

 

 

 

Ed,

RE You're questions - I’ll try to respond using your numbering:

 1 - My one memorial encounter with electronics as a youngster  around 15 years old was when our Midwest Radio – a console about 3 ft high and two ft wide that had maybe 20 tubes and a series of IF coils – but wasn’t receiving signals too well. 

It had been a gift from a neighbor who actually had a job and could purchase something like that – he had purchased a new one because of the poor performance and he gave his old one to us and it was a thing to admire.

I decided maybe I could ‘fix’ it so I took the back off and looked inside - Of course I didn’t know they were IF coils  but each had a couple of screws on top and I discovered that every one of them was not tightened down!  So I tightened them and the Radio was forever silent.    I can’t really call my dad’s reaction as a lecture – it was a tight-lipped masterpiece of self-control.

  

2- I worked on about 17 different Radars during  WW II – I do not recall the part numbers – I think the earliest one was an SCR 276 a low frequency Radar using a large ‘screen’ type antenna system with multiple phased dipoles spread across the surface and an Amplidyne [?] rotator system.

The Radars ranged from 200 mHz to 3000 MHz systems using parabola antennas   In those days the Magnetron was a top secret tube and are now common in every household’s microwave oven.

3- My interest in Television began and ended with the Tarzian years.

My early interest was in auto mechanics – I went to Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis where I took three years of auto mechanics and  I didn’t really become interested in electronics until one visit to the library looking for information on automobiles I ran across a book by Ghiaradi [?] it as filled with schematics and math explaining how each circuit functioned and I found it fascinating – took the book out and renewed it several times.

Electronics became by primary interest.

4- I loved Los Angeles –

Fairly fresh out of the service finding work was not a big problem.   My first try was at a small outfit on Pico Blvd called Bel Canto Radio– they were advertising for a technician – it was run by a German Jew who had escaped  Hitler’s Germany before the war … he had designed a TRF AM receiver that he customized building them  into walls and furniture for mainly the “Hollywood” community.

(these were clients with lots of money and weird tastes – I once built a radio hi-fi system in the base of an antique $3000  toilet stool – when you opened the lid the radio came on)

The work entailed both the repair of and installation of his own and other commercial radio equipment – not much FM in those days [but that’s a story in its own right].

 While Superheterodyne  receivers were the radio of preference for most the TRF [tuned radio frequency] radio had slightly better quality for AM signals because the bandwidth..and  selectivity didn’t seem a problem because the radio spectrum was not saturated with hundreds stations on air.

He had a partner who owned a record store on Wilshire Blvd.   Turns out his clients were mainly the large Jewish community of the Hollywood movie industry…writers, composers, etc., and some big time actors of the day too.

I was able to meet several during the course of working at Bel Canto in their homes where I went to ‘fix’ something – that almost always meant replacing a tube.   I have autographed ‘clarinet reeds’ from Benny Goodman,  e.g.,  he had one of the first BrushTape Recorders which was the reason for my meeting him.

Anyway I didn’t stay in LA only because when I looked into going to UCLA they would not honor some credit hours from Butler University I had accumulated and even though it was only 3 or 4 – I really do not recall how many  - I felt strongly they should have accepted them – so I decided to return to IU in Bloomington.

5- Construction of WTTV was a memorial time – all night working sessions – construction of all the studio equipment from video and pulse distribution  amplifiers, sync Generators, video switching systems, monitors, consoles, slide projectors, audio systems, cameras, flying spot slide unit, transmitter, diplexer and even the bat wing antenna for Channel 10!    The design of the microwave path for interconnection to the network out of Cincinnati requiring two intermediate sites from an Off-air point about 30 miles form Cincinnati – Brown County State Park is right in the path and has high elevations.

The exposure to such a wide range of electronic and mechanical design issues could never have been duplicated in any other venue.

That group at Sarkes Tarzian was fearless in taking on such a mind boggling task.   The primary engineer, Mort Weigel, {no degree} was a beer drinking, joke telling, phenomena of talent – from metal working, chemical treatment, electrical – mechanical, and electronic design,  nothing was outside his abilities to undertake.

I probably learned more in those times of construction of WTTV – spanning a range of mechanical and electronic design - than I would have in a lifetime under other circumstances.

6-  I know of no equipment items that from those years – but some may exist – if they do they are likely in the possession of Thomas Tarzian.